Construction starts fell sharply last year

Housing starts fell sharply in the year to September 2019, according to the latest official data.

The housing ministry said that construction began on just 157,330 homes in the year to September, down 7% on the nearly 169,000 started in the same period the year before.

The seasonally adjusted figures also showed that starts for the quarter covering July, August and September last year were 11% down on the same quarter in 2018, at 39,510.

However, the figures published today showed continuing strong growth in completions, reflecting the strong rises in starts in previous years.

The figures showed that 177,980 homes were completed in the year to September, up 9% on the previous year.

There were also more council homes built in the last quarter – 810 – than at any time since quarterly figures were first collected in 2001.

Joseph Daniels, founder of modular developer Project Etopia, said the drop in starts reflected the chilling effect of political and economic uncertainty over the past year, which had left the government’s 300,000-homes a year target “in the dust”.

However, he added: “Now the mist has cleared, and with the wind in Britain’s sales once we leave the EU in a few days’ time, the pace of construction should pick up in the short term.”